ABUSE TRACKER

The bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Dodge City who stepped down 14 months ago during an investigation into a sexual abuse allegation is resuming his duties, a church official announced Wednesday.

Bishop John Brungardt will return to his role as bishop after investigations by Kansas’ top law enforcement agency and church authorities, Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas said in a statement.

“Bishop Brungardt voluntarily withdrew from public ministry to facilitate the investigation of the allegation,” Naumann said. “During that period, the allegation was fully investigated by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI), following which civil authorities declined prosecution.”

Brungardt had stepped down as bishop in February 2021 after the allegation of sexual abuse of a minor was lodged against him.

Naumann said church authorities conducted their own investigation of the allegation after the KBI’s was completed.

“The Congregation for the…

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For immediate release: March 23, 2022

Seminarian accused of rape now at SLU

He recently lived with two former archdiocesan leaders

Bishop bizarrely claims that the alleged victim is really the perp

The same bishop, from St. Louis, also fired an investigator

SNAP to leaflet students warning of 20 SLU accused predators

Group wants SLU to post names of predators who worked here

WHAT: Handing out leaflets and holding signs, clergy abuse victims will warn St. Louis University students and staff about a seminarian who allegedly raped, assaulted, and spread defamatory rumors about a young man in 2019. The accused now attends the university and faces a recently filed civil lawsuit.

Victims will also prod SLU officials to post on their website the names of credibly accused child molesting clerics (like the archdiocese does). Their leaflet will name at least 15 priests who have been publicly accused of abuse and have…

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A survivor of clerical sexual abuse who quit the Vatican’s advisory group on abuse said she believes new reforms of the Roman Curia will further erode the independence of the body.

Marie Collins, whose advocacy led to an Irish government inquiry into the handling of abuse allegations in the Dublin Archdiocese, was one of the founding members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors in 2014.

She quit in 2017, warning that “the reluctance of some in the Vatican Curia to implement recommendations or cooperate with the work of a commission, when the purpose is to improve the safety of children and vulnerable adults around the world, is unacceptable.”

Collins told The Irish Catholic newspaper that the Curia reorganization unveiled by Pope Francis March 19, which will see the commission become part of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, will further undermine the work of the…

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Archbishop Georg Gänswein, private secretary of retired Pope Benedict XVI, has defended his boss and criticized the Munich abuse report, which made international headlines when it was released in January.

The report alleges misconduct by Munich Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict, in dealing with four abusers during his time as head of the archdiocese from 1977 to 1982. The lawyers who conducted the investigation on behalf of the archdiocese accused the retired pope of misconduct in four cases. The allegations included the transfer of clerics who had committed criminal offenses and were allowed to continue pastoral care elsewhere.

“Not one of the allegations stood up to scrutiny of the files,” Archbishop Gänswein said in an interview with the newspaper Die Zeit, published March 17. The German Catholic news agency KNA said Archbishop Gänswein told Die Zeit the report was “in reality an indictment.”

Archbishop Gänswein told Die Zeit the…

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The deeply evil abuse of vulnerable children that happened at the Marylands School in Christchurch, and at St Joseph’s Orphanage and the Hebron Trust, was “the darkest chapter of the Catholic Church’s history in New Zealand”.  

That’s what was stated in the closing submission filed by Te Rōpū Tautoko, on behalf of the Bishops and Congregational Leaders of the Catholic Church of New Zealand, on the last day of the case study hearing into Marylands School by the Royal Commission on Abuse in Care. 

Marylands School operated from 1955 to 1984, and was run by the Hospitaller Brothers of St John of God.  

The royal commission hearing, which ran from February 9-17 this year, heard testimony from 22 abuse survivors, as well as from survivor advocates, a Police representative, a Government official, a lawyer, Brother Timothy Graham of the St John of God brothers, and Archbishop Paul Martin, SM, the…

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A Franciscan friar who pleaded guilty to sexual battery earlier this month in Jefferson County has been sent to jail.

David Morrier was sentenced March 11 to stay in a Steubenville residence until his paperwork allows a transfer to Pennsylvania. According to court documents, he couldn’t stay where he originally was to go. With no other residence available, he suggested being held in jail until a place could be found for him.

Judge Joseph Bruzzese agreed.

According to the Franciscan Friars of the Third Order Regular from Loreto, Pa., Morrier is still considered a friar, but is not permitted to engage in public ministry. He was charged with sexual battery in relation to crimes involving a student between 2010 and 2013.

David Morrier was sentenced March 11 to stay in a Steubenville residence until his paperwork allows a transfer to Pennsylvania. According to court documents, he couldn’t stay…

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A December complaint sent through the U.S. bishops’ abuse reporting system alleges that a now-retired Brooklyn auxiliary bishop put minors at risk, by enabling a priest to be in contact with teenage girls despite allegations of grooming behavior.

Bishop Raymond Chappetto retired last month as auxiliary bishop and vicar general in the Brooklyn diocese. He is now the subject of a Vatican-ordered investigation under the terms of Vos estis lux mundi, the 2019 policy promulgated by Pope Francis on investigating abuse or administrative misconduct allegations against bishops.

The complaint, a copy of which was obtained by The Pillar, alleges two instances of administrative misconduct on the part of Chappetto. Both concern a Brooklyn priest, Fr. ​​Uririoghene Okrokoto, who was prohibited from contact with minors in August 2019, after allegations of “boundary violations and grooming” with teenage girls, according to the complaint filed against the bishop.

After he was sent to the St. Luke’s…

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After years of anticipation, Pope Francis issued Saturday a plan to restructure the Roman Curia, the central administrative offices and institutions charged with assisting the pope in leading the Catholic Church, and referred to commonly as the Vatican. 

Pope Francis wrote March 19 that his reforms aim to ensure that curial offices serve the needs of diocesan bishops and the mission of the papacy, and emphasized “transparency and coordinated action” — pointed responses to the pope’s longstanding concern that Vatican offices can seem territorial, opaque, and inflexible. 

The norms themselves, published in the apostolic constitution Praedicate evangelium, task the Vatican Secretariat of State with administrative coordination, while overhauling and combining related but long-independent offices. The pope himself took on responsibility for the missionary and evangelization departments of the Roman Curia, while elevating the status of the papal almoner, who coordinates Vatican charitable works. 

The text also states directly that lay people…

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Vatican officials on Monday defended the last-minute rollout of Pope Francis’ reform of the Holy See bureaucracy while also painting it as one of the most consequential moves of his pontificate since it recognizes that any believer, male or female, can head a Vatican office.

The new apostolic constitution “Praedicate Evanglium,” or “Proclaiming the Gospel,” was released Saturday after nine years of work with no advance warning and only in Italian. It replaces the previous 1988 founding blueprint of the Holy See which, among other things, made clear that only ordained priests, bishops and cardinals can head Vatican offices because they alone enjoyed the “power of governance” in the Catholic Church.

While the change potentially impacts just a few Vatican offices, the rationale behind it — as explained by officials at a Vatican press conference Monday — is significant and in keeping with Francis’ efforts to make the church less…

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When you string together all that’s alleged or known about Diocese of Knoxville Bishop Richard Stika and the purported seminarian who is now accused of sexually assaulting a church employee, it paints a pretty damning picture.  

None of these facts or allegations, in isolation, is of course conclusive proof of wrongdoing. But taken together, they sure don’t pass the smell test. 

A young Polish Catholic man moves to the U.S., and no explanation is offered. He joins the Jesuits. He’s apparently kicked out because of sexual misconduct allegations.  

Then, a bishop brings him to Knoxville and presents him as a seminarian even though he’s not yet in seminary.  

When he does attend seminary out of state, he is reportedly ousted for the same reason: sexual misconduct accusations. 

After the alleged crime in Knoxville, Stika reportedly gives the accuser an unexpected and unexplained gift. He sets up a meeting between the accuser and…

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On Monday a Peruvian archbishop who belongs to a scandal-ridden lay group and who has long been investigated by Peruvian media, met with Pope Francis at the Vatican as civil land disputes continue in his archdiocese.

On the list of papal appointments for Monday, March 21, was a meeting with Archbishop José Antonio Eguren Anselmi of Piura, Peru, who is a prominent member of the Sodalitium Christinae Vitae (SCV), founded by Peruvian layman Luis Fernando Figari in the 1970s.

Figari is accused of physical, psychological, and sexual abuses within the community, including against minors. He was sanctioned by the Vatican in 2017 and prohibited from having further contact with members of the group, and he is currently living in exile.

The Vatican did not publish details about the pope’s meeting with Eguren, which was private, and which marks the second one-on-one meeting the pope has had with him in less than four…

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St. Augustine once said in his Easter Sermon, 227: “If we receive the Eucharist worthily, we become what we receive.” If the Eucharist encompasses all virtues of justice, compassion, care for the oppressed, and commandments of love of God and love of neighbour, the commandments Jesus himself taught his disciples.

Today, the clamour for justice from the parish level — the clamour from the parishioners themselves who make up the church congregation — falls on deaf ears.

This clamour is related to the protection of their interest as parishioners, as the very people that helped put together the church properties that include buildings for worship and related faith activities. It includes as well Family Aid that is meant to assist parishioners and all other people that are in need.

These assets of the church are now for sale. Some of the parishes have been shut, thus depriving the parishioners of…

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Glenn Whiffen’s recent reflection on the Mount Cashel Crimes and the slow grinding of the wheels of justice should be required reading for every Catholic, whether clergy or laity.

Mr. Whiffen reminds us that the victims in this whole miserable failure are the children who were victimized, physically and sexually abused by those who were responsible for their welfare. ‘The Brothers’ went back to Ireland, but we’re still here.

We, parishioners of the St. John’s Archdiocese, may feel that we are unfairly drawn into the case as ‘vicarious defendants’, we who (most of us) never ill-treated a child in our lives. We may feel like victims, and it’s true that some priests have shared that feeling with their parishioners. Mr. Whiffen reminds us that most of us were never used and abused as disgracefully as those children in the Mount Cashel Boys’ Home.

We may experience some…

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Will faith without buildings be all that’s left for the faithful?

I know a lot of people in Newfoundland and Labrador who profess to be Roman Catholic. Many of them good friends, some are former partners, some are work colleagues, some are teammates and some are acquaintances.

Great people. Kind, real.

I’ve also, off and on as a reporter for 30 years, covered the physical and sexual abuse cases of Christian Brothers and priests who destroyed young boys’ lives — right from the Hughes Inquiry to the actual trials of the Mount Cashel Christian Brothers and priests in the early 1990s.

I’ve also met, spoke with and interviewed a number of victims — mostly men, and mostly still young men at the time, with their hearts and lives torn apart. Watched them crumble in front of me.

Some I still speak to from time to time. They are still struggling….

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Canada’s bishops have voiced hope that when delegations of Canadian Indigenous meet with Pope Francis next week, the meetings will be an opportunity to reflect on the tragedies of the past and take steps toward further healing and reconciliation.

Speaking to Crux, Johnathan Lesarge, a spokesman for the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB), expressed sorrow and remorse for the trauma experienced by Indigenous communities, and for the church’s role in the suffering they endured through the residential school system.

The bishops, Lesarge said, are “honored” that the pope has decided to meet with Indigenous representatives during individual and group audiences at the Vatican, “where they have the opportunities to tell their stories and share their perspectives.”

“We expect that these encounters will allow the Holy Father to meaningfully address both the ongoing trauma and legacy of suffering faced by Indigenous people to this day, as well as the role of…

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Survivors express optimism that senior German cleric grasps scale of issue

Cardinal Reinhard Marx: has yet to address a key accusation in the Munich abuse report, that former pope Benedict, during his time as archbishop of Munich, was aware of abusing priests in his archdiocese. Photograph: Thomas Lohnes/Getty Images 

German cardinal Reinhard Marx has conceded that confronting the legacy of clerical sexual abuse and its cover-up in the Catholic Church can only happen when “systemic questions” are asked of the institution and its hierarchy.

Two months ago a report commissioned by Cardinal Marx, as archbishop of Munich and Freising, documented nearly 500 cases of clerical sexual abuse of children and youths and at least 235 perpetrators in the archdiocese in the postwar decades – with the true number likely to be much higher.

“Through…

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Lawsuit claims church’s culture silences witnesses and whistleblowers while enabling abusers

WARNING: This article contains graphic content and may affect those who have experienced​ ​​​sexual violence or know someone affected by it. 

A former student who attended a Mission, B.C. seminary in the 1970s has filed a lawsuit against the school, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Vancouver, and the estate of a dead monk who he claims sexually assaulted him decades ago.

The alleged victim, who is applying to keep his identity anonymous, was one of three complainants in a 1990s criminal sexual assault trial that ended in the acquittal of Benedictine monk Vincent Harold Sander, known as Father Placidus.

According to a notice of civil claim filed this week in B.C. Supreme Court, the man claims Sander fondled his genitals and penetrated him anally when he was a 13-year-old student at the Seminary of Christ the King.

The lawsuit claims the church…

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Pope Francis released his long-awaited reform program of the Holy See bureaucracy on Saturday that envisages greater decision-making roles for the laity and gives new institutional weight to efforts to fight clerical sex abuse.

The 54-page text, titled “Praedicate Evanglium,” or “Proclaiming the Gospel,” replaces the founding constitution “Pastor Bonus” that was penned by St. John Paul II in 1988.

Francis was elected pope in 2013 in large part on his promise to reform the bulky and inefficient Vatican bureaucracy, which acts as the organ of central governance for the 1.3-billion strong Catholic Church. He named a Cabinet of cardinal advisers who have met periodically since his election to help him draft the changes.

Much of the reform work has been rolled out piecemeal over the years, with offices consolidated and financial reforms issued. But the publication of the new document, for now only in Italian, finalizes the process and…

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Pope Francis has overhauled the Vatican’s central bureaucracy for the first time in over 30 years, dramatically expanding the number of top leadership roles lay men and women can hold and reorganizing Vatican departments under the central priority of evangelization. 

The 54-page text of the new Apostolic Constitution was released on March 19 — 9 years to the day of Francis’ inauguration as pope in 2013 — and fulfills a top priority of the College of Cardinals, who made clear their desire to improve and decentralize church governance when they gathered in Rome to name a successor to the then-recently retired Pope Benedict XVI.  

Under the title of Praedicate Evangelium (“Preach the Gospel”), the new document stresses that evangelization is the central task of the church. 

“The reform of the Roman Curia is also placed in the context of the missionary nature of the church,” states the preamble to the text….

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People often ask SNAP leaders “What specifically can I do to help?” Here are some quick and easy ways you can prevent future abuse, and help already wounded survivors to heal.

Always ask yourself “Does this make it easier for victims to find help and come forward?” because that’s the fundamental question. Kids are safe, abusers are exposed and parents are warned ONLY when victims are able to report their crimes. If victims and witnesses stay silent, nothing changes.

1) Learn about “safe touch.” Make sure your kids know about it. Encourage your school, athletic league, YWCA, and other youth groups to offer such prevention programs.

2) Report suspected abuse, no matter how vague it might seem or how long ago it might have happened.

3) Support legislative reform efforts that make it easier for victims to report crimes and pursue their abusers in court. Especially important are extending/eliminating the civil…

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It wasn’t until Fr David Vard reluctantly took a trip to France to help the sick and vulnerable get a blessing at the Lourdes Baths that the Newbridge native saw another side of Catholicism

Ireland’s youngest priest has opened up on his journey to the priesthood despite the numerous scandals that engulfed the Catholic Church.

The mother and baby homes, the Tuam babies scandal, and the global child abuse revelations were all present as Fr David Vard went through his formative years.

The barrage of “bad news” even forced him out of the church after making his confirmation.

Fr Vard, Ireland’s youngest priest at 30 years of age, told The Tommy Tiernan Show he left the church as a youngster because he “didn’t want anything to do with it”; due to the numerous scandals that engulfed it

It wasn’t until he reluctantly took a trip to France to help the…

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A December complaint sent through the U.S. bishops’ abuse reporting system alleges that a now-retired Brooklyn auxiliary bishop put minors at risk, by enabling a priest to be in contact with teenage girls despite allegations of grooming behavior.

Bishop Raymond Chappetto retired last month as auxiliary bishop and vicar general in the Brooklyn diocese. He is now the subject of a Vatican-ordered investigation under the terms of Vos estis lux mundi, the 2019 policy promulgated by Pope Francis on investigating abuse or administrative misconduct allegations against bishops.

The complaint, a copy of which was obtained by The Pillar, alleges two instances of administrative misconduct on the part of Chappetto. Both concern a Brooklyn priest, Fr. ​​Uririoghene Okrokoto, who was prohibited from contact with minors in August 2019, after allegations of “boundary violations and grooming” with teenage girls, according to the complaint filed against the bishop.

After he was sent to the St. Luke’s…

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Vancouver’s Roman Catholic archbishop, a Mission Catholic seminary and a dead priest have been named as defendants in a lawsuit alleging sexual and physical abuse dating to 1977.

The complainant, known only by his initials, alleges Harold Vincent Sander, also known as Father Placidus, encouraged the 13-year-old seminary student to sketch his profile.

It was in Sander’s private office that the boy’s pants and underwear were lowered to his ankles, according to a notice of civil claim filed in B.C. Supreme Court on March 14.

The claim said Sander fondled the boy’s genitals and then anally penetrated him.

Named in the suit are the Seminary of Christ the King; Westminster Abbey Ltd.; The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Vancouver, a Corporation Sole; and the estate of Harold Vincent Sander a.k.a. Dom Placidus Sander. He died in October 2021.

The suit, filed by lawyer Sandra Kovacs, asserts Sander was in a position of power and trust…

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New efforts come amid the Catholic Church’s groundbreaking investigation.

Florent Varak had been a pastor for nine years in 2001 when a 15-year-old church attendee disclosed that his father had been sexually abusing him.

“I was just stunned,” said Varak, who at the time pastored Église protestante évangélique de Villeurbanne-Cusset (Evangelical Protestant Church of Villeurbanne-Cusset) in Lyon.

Since the attendee was a minor, Varak believed this revelation required immediate legal action. He called the father into his office and explained that the man would either write a letter to the procureur de la République, the district attorney, denouncing himself, or Varak would.

Varak wrote the letter, and the trial took place almost two years after a government investigation revealed that the abuser’s actions were not limited to his son. Varak attended the three-day trial and testified as a key witness. The father was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Two decades…

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Over the past few years, members of the LGBTQ Catholic community around the globe have been watching how Germany’s church leaders, organizations, and laity are leading the way on progressive measures for LGBTQ equality. Inevitably, the question arises: “How is that happening there when in other places we still struggle?” 

Bondings 2.0 editors asked Dr. Michael Brinkschröder, one of the leaders of the Catholic LGBTQ movement in Germany, to provide an analysis of  what has been happening in the church in that nation that has allowed it to move so far forward on LGBTQ issues. Dr. Brinkschröder, a theologian and sociologist, is a member of #OutInChurch and co-chair of the German Catholic LGBT+ Committee. The following is his response. 

Introduction: Waves of Solidarity and Support

In January of this year, 125 LGBTIQ church workers in Germany came out by issuing a statement “#OutInChurch” and by having a documentary “Wie Gott uns schuf”…

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[Via Kilgore News Herald]

Archbishop Michael Jude Byrnes on Friday issued a much stronger call for the Catholic community to pull together more existing assets to help pay nearly 300 survivors of Guam clergy sexual assault because it’s the “right thing” to do, and it would end the Archdiocese of Agana’s three-year bankruptcy.

Many of these assets must be contributed, he said.

The archdiocese is under a March 25 deadline to offer a revised settlement offer to the creditors’ committee that represents mostly abuse survivors.

Otherwise, the clergy sex abuse cases could go to trial.

The archbishop’s open letter gives a glimpse into the mixed sentiments within the Catholic community on the use of Catholic school, parish, chancery and other archdiocese assets to help pay abuse survivors.

“I acknowledge the many intense emotions of our Catholic faithful during this journey of atonement, reparation and reorganization. You are angry, saddened, frustrated…

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The friendship between then-Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Buenos Aires and Father Gustavo Zanchetta took root during 2005-2011, when the future pope led the Argentinian Bishops’ Conference and the younger priest served as executive undersecretary of that body. 

And after the election of the Church’s first Latin American pope in 2013, the strength of that bond was clear to all when Pope Francis, in one of his first episcopal appointments, named Father Zanchetta the new bishop of Orán in northern Argentina. 

The announcement prompted protests in the bishop-elect’s former Diocese of Quilmes, where lay leaders accused him of mishandling financial matters. It would be the first of many such complaints against Bishop Zanchetta that appeared to fall on deaf ears. Media reports and comments from Francis himself have documented the close bond between the two men and the fact that the accused remained in ministry for five years after allegations of sexual…

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A committee representing several Catholic entities in the Boy Scouts of America bankruptcy has reached a settlement with the BSA and is withdrawing its objections to its proposed reorganization plan, attorneys told a judge Friday.

The announcement came on the fifth day of a trial to determine whether the Delaware judge will approve the BSA’s reorganization plan.

Under the settlement, virtually every Roman Catholic entity nationwide, including parishes, schools, dioceses and archdioceses, that was involved with Scouting would be considered a “participating chartered organization” in the bankruptcy.

That would release them from liability for all Scouting-related child sex abuse claims against them from 1976 to the present, and for all pre-1976 claims subject to coverage by insurance companies that have reached their own settlements in the BSA bankruptcy. They also would be granted 12 months to negotiate financial contributions to a settlement fund for abuse victims in exchange for a…

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Entering the season of Lent can seem like a blessed relief. The harsh mark of ash on the forehead, the stark words of truth, “you are dust,” the stripping away of the distractions and pleasures of our earthly life to stare our mortality square in the face — all these can be received with a bracing joy.

But as Ash Wednesday passes and the Sundays of Lent are one by one ticked off, we begin to feel the full weight and heft of our sin. We embark on Lent thinking it will act like a spiritual cold shower. Before long we are reminded that we are walking the Way of the Cross, and this isn’t some spa treatment we have signed up for.

This year marks 20 years since a group of journalists, part of an investigative team at The Boston Globe dubbed Spotlight, broke the story of the widespread and long-standing…

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Former Franciscan University chaplain Fr. David Morrier was sentenced to five years probation and a lifetime of sex offender registration Friday, after pleading guilty in a Jefferson County, Ohio, courtroom to one count of sexual battery. 

But while the priest’s conviction ends his time in the courtroom, the canonical case against Morrier is only beginning. And questions remain about what university administrators and the priest’s provincial leaders knew about allegations against him, and how they responded.

Morrier was charged in April 2021 with rape and sexual battery against a university student he is alleged to have groomed for years before engaging in serial sexual abuse. He received a plea bargain with the approval of his victim, the Steubenville Herald-Star reported, because she wanted to ensure he would be registered as a sex offender, in order to prevent him from committing new acts of abuse. 

According to a chilling statement from…

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Rome – Gabriel Boric, the charismatic former student activist who swept to the presidency in Chile last December and is now the second-youngest head of state in the world, marked the end of his first week in charge on Friday.

There’s at least one group in Chile clearly put on notice there’s a new sheriff in town – the country’s Catholic bishops, who presided over the most massive clerical abuse crisis anywhere in Latin America.

On Saturday, following his inauguration and in keeping with tradition, Boric took part in an ecumenical prayer service held in Santiago’s cathedral and led by Spanish-born Cardinal Celestino Aos, who’s still relatively new himself.

On Sunday, the president was again in the spotlight for the conclusion of his installation, and the 36-year-old left-leaning politician gave a hint as to what his relationship with the bishops will be during the next four years.

“There is something…

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A new lawsuit accuses a Charleston priest of sexual abuse.

Reverend Father Bryan Babick has been named in a federal lawsuit along with the diocese of Charleston and the Bishop of Charleston brought by a former seminary student.

Babick has been the parish administrator at Lady of Good Counsel Catholic Church in Folly Beach. The defendant was also a former chaplain at Bishop England High School

According to the lawsuit, the plaintiff “John Doe 197,” was a seminary student. He says he was being advised by Babick at the time of the alleged abuse in 2019.

Babick was a priest he says he’s known since his days as a Bishop England student.

While home on a break from his studies, the student says he met Babick for dinner.

The suit alleges that Doe lost consciousness and awoke to Babick performing sex acts on him. Afterward the suit alleges that Babick…

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[This letter refers to the Winter Report. See Gordon A. Winter et al., The Report of the Archdiocesan Commission of Enquiry into the Sexual Abuse of Children by Members of the Clergy (aka “The Winter Report”), Volume 1, Volume 2, and Conclusions and Recommendations, commissioned by Archbishop Alphonsus L. Penney of the Archdiocese of St. John’s, Newfoundland, June 1990]

When will people get it?

I refer to the assertion (since Vatican 2 in the 60s) that “WE are the Church.” Because, to be clear, it is not the building, it’s not the cemetery, it’s not even the parishioners who “chased the ace!” The church refers to the people. Humanity. All faiths. It resides within us.

So when I read about people being upset about the Diocese of the RC church having to sell its property and hand over monies raised for other purposes to the survivors of sexual abuse by…

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In many regards, it was entirely unremarkable: a short and simple memo, detailing some personnel decisions in a sparsely populated diocese far-removed from any significant source of worldly power.

But for the faithful in the beleaguered Diocese of Crookston, Minn., Bishop Andrew Cozzens’ letter of last week was nothing short of a pastoral revolution — and for Catholics more widely, it’s an instance of the kind of clarity the laity are increasingly expecting, though often lacking, from their leaders.

Issued on March 7, Bishop Cozzens’ letter was addressed to both the clergy and lay faithful of Crookston, a diocese that recently suffered through an acrimonious, multi-year investigation of its previous bishop, Michael Hoeppner, who only last April was forced to resign for grossly mishandling allegations of clergy sex abuse. Bishop Cozzens, who was installed to lead Crookston just 3 months ago, clarified in his letter that his predecessor would not be…

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A retired Catholic priest in Perth has been found guilty of sexually abusing a young girl more than 40 years ago.

Key points:

• The charges stem from incidents between 1979 and 1982
• The abuse began when the victim was six
• Doyle will be sentenced in May

Richard Doyle, 85, was found guilty of four charges of indecent dealings with the girl when she was between the ages of six and 10.

The District Court in WA was told the girl’s mother was a devout Catholic with a strong involvement in the church.

She first met Doyle in Bruce Rock where he was a parish priest.

When the family moved to Perth in 1978, Doyle visited their home uninvited.

The court heard Doyle would visit frequently between 1979 and 1982, and would often stay for dinner.

“If you knew my history of growing up, my parents, my grandparents would never turn…

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Dunedin’s Kavanagh College will be renamed after an investigation found its namesake failed to take appropriate action over claims of abuse.

The school will become Trinity Catholic College from 1 January 2023, with the Bishop of Dunedin saying the church had previously let survivors down badly.

An investigation began in 2020 after a number of abuse victims in the Dunedin diocese complained that former Catholic Bishop of Dunedin John Kavanagh had failed to act on claims of sexual abuse by priests.

Bishop Kavanagh died in 1985.

The Catholic Church’s National Office for Professional Standards (NOPS) engaged independent Christchurch senior investigator Micky Earl of the firm Corporate Risks to conduct an investigation into abuse complaints while Bishop Kavanagh was in office from 1957 to 1985.

In a statement, Metropolitan Archbishop of Aotearoa-New Zealand Cardinal John Dew said records showed that seven priests, two brothers and one lay teacher sexually abused children,…

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Vulnerable students at a British boarding school had sex in front of another pupil and others were able to sneak out and drink themselves unconscious because they were so poorly supervised, inspectors have found.

“Serious failures” were identified at Ampleforth college, a Catholic boarding school in North Yorkshire that charges £37,905 a year.

Ofsted inspectors found that arrangements to safeguard vulnerable pupils were ineffective, particularly outside the classroom.

“Some younger pupils, whose vulnerabilities include Send [special educational needs and disability], were able to engage in penetrative sexual activity, observed by another pupil, because levels of staff supervision were not sufficient to protect them,” the Ofsted report says.

The school denies that any sex took place, saying that police investigated and found “no implication of penetration”. It says a witness to the incident, which occurred when the children were getting changed for PE, reported “a three-second incident in which both [students] were…

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[Includes 15-minute video of the press conference announcing the lawsuit.]

On Tuesday, March 15, attorneys Jessica Arbour and Jacques Bezou, Jr. hosted a press conference regarding the filing of what they say is a “new child sexual abuse and coverup lawsuit.”

The suit has been filed on behalf of Larry Polizzi, a man who claims he was sexually abused as a child at Hope Haven, a church-run home for orphans and troubled youth.

Court papers report Polizzi was molested during a court-ordered stay at Hope Haven in 1976. Polizzi was 14 when the allegations happened.

This case follows a 2018 allegation filed against nearly 60 members of the clergy after what the Archdiocese of New Orleans said were ‘credible accusations of sexual abuse.” This included 8 members who worked at Hope Haven.

The 2018 case was filed by 4 men who stayed at Hope Haven as children in…

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A Catholic priest who sexually assaulted a parishioner while she visited him on Christmas Day has been placed on the Sex Offenders Register.

Father Martins Enegbuma pounced on the woman as she delivered a festive meal for him at his home next door to the Our Lady Mother of the Church in Edinburgh.

Enegbuma, 44, ran his hands over the victim’s body, rubbed her foot and kissed her on the mouth during the attack.

The disgraced priest, originally from Nigeria, denied the sex attack but was found guilty following a trial at Edinburgh Sheriff Court last month.

He was back in the dock for sentencing yesterday where a sheriff described the offence as “a serious breach of trust”.

Following the conviction the Catholic Church issued an apology to the woman and praised her for coming forward to report the assault.

Previously the court heard the woman, who is in her…

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[Note from BishopAccountability.org: The “Disclosure Statement” appended to this article (see below) does not mention that Fr. Llywelyn works in the Jesuits’ West Province, which has released a list of 112 Jesuits credibly accused of sexual abuse. That list is not mentioned in this article, although Fr. Lewellyn does write: “Like those in other Catholic orders, Jesuit priests around the world have been accused of sex abuse. A recent church report in Spain, for example, identified 96 abusers, most of whom had already died.”]

I am a scholar of Catholicism and a priest who belongs to the Society of Jesus (more commonly known as the Jesuits) – often considered one of the Catholic Church’s most influential religious orders.

But the Jesuits are also among the church’s more controversial groups: They have sometimes run afoul of Catholic groups holding different opinions or church authorities, and they also have been accused of conniving in politics….

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[Via Crux]

Hamburg – Archbishop Georg Gänswein, private secretary of retired Pope Benedict XVI, has defended his boss and criticized the Munich abuse report, which made international headlines when it was released in January.

The report alleges misconduct by Munich Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict, in dealing with four abusers during his time as head of the archdiocese from 1977 to 1982. The lawyers who conducted the investigation on behalf of the archdiocese accused the retired pope of misconduct in four cases. The allegations included the transfer of clerics who had committed criminal offenses and were allowed to continue pastoral care elsewhere.

“Not one of the allegations stood up to scrutiny of the files,” Gänswein said in an interview with the newspaper Die Zeit, published March 17. The German Catholic news agency KNA said Gänswein told Die Zeit the report was “in reality an indictment.”

However, he said, the former pope was…

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[Includes a video with excerpts from survivors’ statements and a link to Senate bill 420 and Senate bill 75.]

Survivors of child sexual abuse are urging Kansas lawmakers to pass a bill getting rid of the age limit on when victims can come forward and seek justice.

“As more and more people have realized that from the time the crime happens to the time that a victim is able to talk about it…sometimes years even decades can go past,” Sen. Cindy Holscher, a democrat from Overland Park, said. “It’s called the age of disclosure, which on average, is the age of 52.”

Holscher, along with other democratic lawmakers held a press conference with survivors on Thursday at the Kansas statehouse. Two bills introduced this session would address reform for child sexual abuse victims. One of the proposals, Senate bill 420, would eliminate the deadline for filing civil lawsuits…

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An appeal court in India has overturned the conviction of the Revd Jonathan Robinson, a priest from the UK, for the abuse of a teenage boy (News, 17 August 2018).

A district judge in Tirunelveli, Jacinta Martin, ruled that the court was “highly satisfied that the charge against the accused is not proved and the accused is acquitted”.

The appeal-court decision brings to an end more than a decade of a legal battle by Mr Robinson, who was accused in September 2011 of abusing a pupil at the school run by the charity he founded in India, the Grail Trust.

His legal counsel submitted to the appeal court that there had been a “gross miscarriage of justice” in the original case. The boy at the centre of the case retracted his statements against Mr Robinson during the original trial, saying that he had made them only after coercion from the Child…

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Forgiveness is not an easy choice, for anyone. But forgiveness is a basic component of the Christian story, and the Christian life.

Still, for many people, forgiveness is a confusing subject — when is forgiveness enabling? Are Christians required to forgive? How we do it?

The Pillar’s Charlie Camosy spoke this week with two forgiveness experts: a priest and a psychologist. Fr. Thomas Berg and Dr. Timothy Lock – who work together at St. Joseph Seminary in New York – have co-written “Choosing Forgiveness: Unleash the Power of God’s Grace,” a new book that explores the meaning of forgiveness, and its importance.

Berg and Lock have a lot to say about what forgiveness really means. If you need to forgive – or be forgiven – you might find their remarks worth reading.

Living a Christian life, almost by definition, means making countercultural choices. Yet it seems like the possibility of forgiveness in…

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The head of a Massachusetts parish soup kitchen was placed on administrative leave on March 11 after allegations were made to the diocese that for years he has coerced vulnerable women who use the soup kitchen’s services into sex.

The complaint was made against Billy Riley, who has been the food for the poor coordinator for St. John’s Catholic Church in the Diocese of Worcester since 2013. A spokesperson for the diocese confirmed that the complaint was made on March 11.

“The coordinator is being placed on administrative leave and, given the seriousness of the allegations, an independent third-party investigator will be retained for a thorough investigation about this complaint,” Ray Delisle, the Diocese of Worcester chancellor and director of communications told Crux on March 11.

Bishop Robert McManus of Worcester declined to comment on the allegations citing that the complaint was recently received. Father John Madden, pastor of St. John’s, declined…

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A 14-year-old boy caught skipping school was ordered to attend a church-run facility for orphans and troubled youths outside New Orleans where he said a Catholic priest and nun sexually abused him.

Now he’s suing — roughly 46 years later.

Louisiana lawmakers lifted the statute of limitations on child sexual abuse cases last year, giving survivors a brief window of opportunity to seek justice in the courts against their alleged abusers. Larry Polizzi is among those taking advantage of the law, which expires in 2024.

Polizzi said in court documents that he was abused at the hands of religious leaders during a brief but “nightmarish” stay in 1976 at Hope Haven, a Catholic orphanage and residential youth facility.

“Our client has waited a very long time for the opportunity for justice and accountability for those responsible for him when he was a vulnerable child in their care,” Jessica Arbour with…

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A 35-year-old priest attached with a Syrian Orthodox Church in Pathanamthitta district of Kerala was arrested on Thursday morning, March 17, for allegedly sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl. He has been identified as Pondson John, priest of the Syrian Orthodox Church at Koodal.

According to IANS, the arrest was based on the complaint of the school girl who confided to her friend about the incident. Her friend, in turn, informed the school authorities. Later, after the school authorities informed the local Child Line officials, they got in touch with the local police. The Pathanamthitta Vanitha police, after a preliminary probe, took the priest into custody on Thursday morning.

According to the complaint, the girl was taken for counselling to the residence of the priest, on March 12, by her mother. The child’s mother had sought the help of the priest for counselling her, as she was facing troubles with her…

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This article is part of The Conversation with America Media, offering diverse perspectives on important issues in the life of the church. Read another perspective on social justice movements here.

One of the great difficulties for any thoughtful Catholic is to be able to separate the wheat from the chaff in assessing secular social movements and causes, particularly those whose leaders often make accurate observations about the moral failings of our society. You may find, as I have on occasion, your natural inclination for justice stirred—while at the same time recognizing, or not wanting to recognize, flaws in the way in which those who champion these causes frame their advocacy (or issues attendant to that advocacy).

It is not easy being a conscientious Catholic in an age of political tribalism. I confess that I sometimes find myself drawn to views and positions simply because it seems that the “wrong people” hold the opposite…

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A Boston Archdiocese priest has been accused of sexually abusing a student at least 100 times in the late 1970s at a Catholic school in Everett, one of the many places where he was assigned by the archdiocese, according to the alleged victim’s lawyer and the official Catholic Directory.

The late Rev. Michael J. Regan allegedly abused the girl from approximately 1977 to 1980, when she was about 14 to 17 years old and the priest was a teacher at Pope John XXIII High School, Mitchell Garabedian said at a press conference on Tuesday.

Regan allegedly threatened to prevent her from graduating if she did not comply with his sexual demands, said Garabedian, who has represented hundreds of clergy sex abuse victims worldwide.

“My client was terrified,” he said.

Since she was often called to Regan’s office during the 2-½ years, Garabedian said, it’s probable that the school’s administrators knew…

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Lawyers for victims not so flexible, however, when it comes to church-owned school properties

Uncertainty about the fate of cemeteries in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. John’s has been put to rest following an agreement in principle that excludes the sacred properties from a historic and ongoing liquidation process.

Evelyn Grondin-Bailey, a member of the St. Patrick’s cemetery committee in Burin, said Monday she was “absolutely elated” that the restored cemetery in her community will not be sold.

“We were extremely happy to get that news,” she said.

But lawyers for the dozens of survivors of sexual abuse at the former Mount Cashel orphanage say they won’t be as lenient when it comes to the roughly 35 schools owned by the Catholic Church that were seized by the government after the dismantling of denominational education in the 1990s.

“If churches are being seized and sold to satisfy judgments, what about…

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[Via Catholic World Report]

One of the former seminarians who was the victim of sexual abuse by Argentine Bishop Emeritus Gustavo Zanchetta of Orán says the powerful prelate manipulated young men under his authority with clothing, computers, and other gifts, discriminated against darker-skinned seminarians, and “bragged about being friends” with Pope Francis.

“The truth is that we had a bad time. Although we all entered with the illusion of being priests, of serving people in the name of God, we lived through very hard times, of a lot of discrimination, of a lot of mistreatment and pain because the Church tried to hide everything that happened,” the former seminarian, identified only as “M.C.” told journalist Silvia Noviasky of the newspaper El Tribuno in an exclusive interview.

“M.C.” and another one-time seminarian, identified in court documents as as “G.G.F.L.,” claimed that Zanchetta had made “amorous proposals” and asked them to give…

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Officials are asking for anyone with information to come forward after a Catholic priest in Carmel was suspended following accusations of inappropriate conduct with a minor.

The Catholic Diocese of Lafayette-in-Indiana said Father James De Oreo, of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish, was suspended from public ministry beginning Friday. A preliminary investigation is ongoing, and precautionary measures are in place, said the diocese, which added that the accusations were reported to Indiana Department of Child Protective Services.

The diocese asks that anyone aware of misconduct during Father De Oreo’s ministry as a priest or seminarian report the incident in the following manner:

• Make a report to Child Protective Services by calling 800-800-5556 or local law enforcement.
• Call Jackie Montrie M.A., LMFT, LMHC Victim Assistance Coordinator of the Diocese of Lafayette-in-Indiana at (765) 464-4988.

“The safety and wellbeing of our children and young people are of the utmost importance,”…

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 A Wichita priest who was accused of sexual exploitation of a child will return to public ministry after the district attorney said he could not file charges.

Father Michael Schemm, from the Church of the Resurrection, was placed on administrative leave in November 2021 after allegations surfaced. The allegations reportedly occurred between 1993 and 1996, when Schemm was assigned to St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Wichita.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or “SNAP” are taking issue with Diocese of Wichita’s decision to reinstate Schemm back into his position. 

“The Diocese is not only putting others at risk by returning Fr. Schemm into ministry,” the network stated in a press release. “But it is also re-traumatizing the brave survivor who came forward, as well as any other victims who may not yet be able to speak out about their abuse.”

The release goes on to say “SNAP supports…

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A woman who says she was sexually abused by a Roman Catholic priest who taught at her high school in Massachusetts has reached a financial settlement with the church, her lawyer said Tuesday.

The settlement with the Archdiocese of Boston reached late last year “was in the high five figures,” attorney Mitchell Garabedian said at a news conference.

The priest, the late Rev. Michael J. Regan, has not previously appeared on any list of credibly accused clergy, including the archdiocese’s own list, Garabedian said. He died in 2020.

“No substantiated claim of abuse was received while he was living,” the archdiocese said in a statement.

The now 60-year-old woman was sexually abused multiple times from 1977 until 1980 when she was from 14 to 17 years of age and attended the now-closed Pope John XXIII High School in Everett where Regan taught economics, Garabedian said.

Ordained in 1962, he served…

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A former Franciscan University priest was sentenced on Friday for sexual battery.

David R. Morrier, while working as a priest at Franciscan University, allegedly convinced a student he was counseling that having sex with him was necessary for mental health treatment purposes.

The prosecution said a pattern of rape and sexual battery occurred from 2010 to 2013, until Morrier was “transferred” to Texas.

Morrier pleaded guilty to a single count of sexual battery on the victim. According to the Herald-Star Prosecutor Jane Hanlin said the victim agreed to the plea deal because “What she wanted from Day 1 was to be able to prevent him from hurting anyone else.”

Morrier will be on probation for five years and must register every 90 days for life as a sex offender and he will be under house arrest with an ankle monitor until he is registered in his home state.

Franciscan University released…

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The Nassau County District Attorney’s office is investigating an associate pastor at a Levittown church for possible possession of child pornography. The church is under the umbrella of the Diocese of Rockville Centre.

The Rev. Joseph Nohs is being probed and is not permitted to serve as a priest at St. Bernard’s Church in Levittown until the outcome of the investigation is complete.

Requests for comment from the diocese were not returned at press time.

Anyone with information concerning the abuse of a minor can contact law enforcement and the Diocesan Office for the Protection of Children and Young People at (516) 594-9063.

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The Center Harbor school where several boys were reportedly molested by members of the disgraced Roman Catholic religious order, the Legionaires of Christ, is no longer a defendant in the federal lawsuits brought by the survivors.

Five men filed lawsuits against the order and the school last year in the United States District Court of Connecticut accusing the order of negligence for effectively facilitating and covering up the abuse.

Judge Kari Dooley dismissed the Immaculate Conception Apostolic School, or ICAS, from the lawsuit last month based on the argument that it is a separate entity based in New Hampshire. The Legionaries of Christ order is registered as a non-profit in Connecticut and it was headquartered in Connecticut for decades.

“ICAS’s principal place of business is in New Hampshire, where it operated, at the times relevant to the Complaint, a private, Roman Catholic boarding school,” Dooley wrote. “ICAS’s students attended class,…

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I don’t know were to begin.

My head is still spinning with the events of the weekend.

People have told me that it’s narcissistic of me to be traumatized by the Morrier case, and they’re probably right, but I can’t help it.  I was already suffering from religious trauma before I saw the news of his indictment last April, and I am worse off now. The only thing I know how to write about is me: my experiences, my life, my day, the things I am passionate about. I wish I had another person here to show you. But there is only me, one of thousands of victims of the Charismatic Renewal, unable to talk about whatever I should talk about, traumatized when I shouldn’t be, never getting better, never doing what I ought.  And the religious trauma is all I can think of today. I will try to give you…

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A Carmel priest was “suspended from public ministry” after allegations of “inappropriate conduct with a minor.”

Bishop of the Diocese of Lafayette-in-Indiana Timothy Doherty announced James De Oreo’s suspension to Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church parish at the end of mass on Sunday. De Oreo was an associate pastor at the church. 

Doherty said the suspension by the diocese was effective Friday, March 11.

De Oreo has not been charged with a crime as of 6 p.m. Monday, March 14, according to online court records. 

Doherty and the diocese didn’t provide specific details about the allegations or if there were previous investigations into De Oreo’s conduct.

In addition to the church, Our Lady of Mount Carmel has a K-8 school of about 600 students, according to state data from the 2020-21 school year.

IndyStar’s attempt to reach De Oreo by phone on Monday afternoon was unsuccessful.

“The diocese received allegations of inappropriate conduct…

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Under new laws that opened Louisiana’s window for victims of child sexual abuse to pursue civil claims, a lawsuit has been filed against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge. The suit has been filed by a man claiming former Baton Rouge and New Orleans priest, the now-deceased Rev. John Anthony Weber, sexually abused him in the 1970s. According to the petition for damages, which was filed in East Baton Rouge Parish District Court, the man claims he was sexually abused by Weber at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in Baton Rouge beginning when he was about 13 years old. The church was also named in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit is the first clergy sexual abuse claim that the Diocese of Baton Rouge has faced since releasing a list in 2019 of its clergy members who were credibly accused of sexual abuse and worked in the diocese throughout its six-decade history. Father Weber was…

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Rick Prashaw launching book in April at Twiggs

Former Sudbury priest Rick Prashaw has published a faith memoir full of stories from his childhood, church and other careers.

Titled Father Rick, Roamin’ Catholic, the book covers seven decades of Prashaw’s life and has earned high praise from NDP politicians, faith leaders and fellow scribes.

“The eyes of some friends gloss over at the mention of faith,” noted Prashaw, who served as a priest in the Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie from 1980 to 1991, including five years at St. Andrew the Apostle parish in New Sudbury. 

“Then they dive into the stories, enjoying the joy, mischief, irreverence, miracles, good works and good people, alongside the sobering commentary on the troubles plaguing religion.” 

Father Rick, Roamin’ Catholic is “an eye-opening memoir shining a light on faith, religion, and the little-known life of priests,” according to the book’s back cover. 

“My faith…

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Part of worldwide Catholic movement on synodality

Questions to be considered during synod discussions in archdiocese

• What in the church fills me with life? How is the Holy Spirit working in my life to deepen my faith and inspire me to be a better disciple and witness of Christ’s love others?
• As a community of believers, what experiences of the Catholic Church have brought joys or revealed wounds? And how can these experiences help us grow together in faith and offer the hope and healing of Christ to the greater community in which we live?
• As a Catholic community, we are expressly enjoined invite others into a life-giving relationship with Jesus Christ. When we dream about how best to accomplish this, what steps is the Holy Spirit inviting the Church in western Oregon to take?In Catholic parishes around western Oregon, Catholics have gathered over the past six weeks to…

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Cape Town – The Anglican Diocese of Niger has terminated the appointment of one of its priests, Reverend Canon Lumenkriti Ebo, for allegedly getting a woman who came seeking help pregnant, according to Malawian online news publication the Maravi Post.

Deputy Chancellor/Registrar of the Diocese on the Niger, Anglican Communion, Ben Uzuegbu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), stated this during a press conference held at the Secretariat complex of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Anambra State Council, Awka.

While the church accused Ebo of impregnating a lady who went to his adoration ministry by telling her she had to sleep with him to get healing, Ebo also accused the church of taking his legally married wife and accommodating her outside her matrimonial home, according to local media.

According to the church, Reverend Ebo made himself a god contrary to his mandate to be a role model, with the…

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The same forces that stalled a national transformation ended up fueling it.

Early in the pages of We Don’t Know Ourselves, Fintan O’Toole’s masterful “personal history” of modern Ireland, I came upon a moment in O’Toole’s life that intersected unexpectedly with my own. The date was Tuesday, March 8, 1966. In a Dublin bedroom in the chill dark of early morning—1:31 a.m. exactly—O’Toole’s mother, given to premonitions, awoke and exclaimed, “God, what was that?” Then came the sound of a distant explosion.

I, too, heard the explosion. My American family had moved from the United States to Ireland for several years. I was a schoolboy, a little older than O’Toole; our home was a mile or so from his. As everyone soon learned, an IRA splinter group had blown off the top of Nelson’s Pillar, an imposing column in O’Connell Street that some saw as a symbol of British oppression but…

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The platform can be quicker at recommending groups built around child predation than it is to remove them.

While trying to map the extent and impact of place-based Facebook groups where QAnon and allied disinformation spread, I went looking for Facebook groups with names including 10, 11, or 12. This was part of my work with the Pitt Disinformation Lab, and I was thinking of the 10th, 11th, or 12th wards of the city of Pittsburgh. What appeared instead was a group named “Buscando novi@ de 9,10,11,12,13 años.” Looking for a nine-year-old girlfriend? What?

The page’s aesthetic was cartoon cute: oversized eyes with long lashes, hearts and pastels. The posts that made explicit references to photographed genitalia were gamified and spangled with emoticons: “See your age in this list? Type it into the replies and I’ll show ‘it’ to you.”

Most often posts were just doorways to connection, the real danger offstage. “Looking…

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Congress has renewed a 1990s-era law that extends protections to victims of domestic and sexual violence, updating the landmark Violence Against Women Act nearly three years after partisan disagreements caused it to lapse.

It passed this week as part of a $1.5 trillion government funding package and capped years of work by members of the House and Senate. It is certain to win the signature of President Joe Biden, who worked on the law during his days in the Senate.

Passage of the legislation brought a rare moment of bipartisan agreement in the Congress, achieved partly on the strength of the personal connections that lawmakers have to domestic violence and its devastating effects.

For North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer, the connection is his adopted son whose biological mother was murdered by her husband. For Sen. Lisa Murkowski, it’s the need to expand the tribal jurisdiction over non-Indian offenders in her…

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A former Roman Catholic priest and teacher who abused his position and authority to sexually exploit a fearful male pupil at a boarding school, has been jailed at the age of 88.

As Father Anthony Barker, he served as a priest in County Durham until 20 years ago and has been living recently in retirement in Queensway, Hexham, Northumberland.

Durham Crown Court heard that a complaint arose in recent years from another pupil of the defendant who has since died.

While investigating those allegations, police spoke to a schoolboy friend of the original complainant who stated that he had been sexually abused at the hands of the defendant, as a child.

He said the abuse began about 50 years ago, during climbing lessons, when he was 12 or 13 and the defendant would have been in his 30s, and slightly later when Barker took him canoeing, as well as in the shower…

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Retired Auxiliary Bishop Edward M. Grosz kept a low profile in the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo since being accused last summer of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy in 1990.

At least that was the case until Monday, when Grosz was on the altar for the funeral of Bishop Emeritus Donald W. Trautman in St. Peter Cathedral in Erie, Pa.

Grosz’s participation in the funeral Mass alongside several other bishops has sparked outrage on social media among survivors of clergy sexual abuse who thought the church had suspended him from public ministry while it investigated the abuse claim.

“I find it extremely offensive,” said Kevin Brun, who along with other abuse victims called the diocese chancery to complain about it. “You would think out of an abundance of caution they would refrain from allowing Bishop Grosz to be on the altar.”

Grosz, who retired in 2020, has not been suspended from…

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Pope Benedict and Munich’s sex-abuse crisis

What did he know and when did he know it?” That was the famous question asked by Senator Howard Baker fifty years ago at the Watergate hearings. Today that question is being asked about Pope Benedict, who has been accused of mishandling sexual-abuse cases when he was archbishop of Munich between 1977 and 1982. 

Benedict’s involvement in these cases is the subject of a new independent report on child abuse by the Munich law firm Westpfahl Spilker Wastl (WSW). The firm was commissioned by the German Catholic Church in 2020 to conduct an inquiry into allegations of abuse in the Munich Archdiocese between 1945 and 2019. The WSW investigators identified at least 497 victims (mostly teenage boys) and 261 offenders, 205 of whom were priests. Forty-two cases have been forwarded to the public prosecutor.

The 1,900-page report reveals several cases in which abusive priests were…

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Jefferson County OH – Former Franciscan friar David Morrier was sentenced Friday to five years probation and lifetime registration as a sex offender. And the victim’s statement indicated the abuse was reported, but no one intervened.

After hearing the emotional statement from the victim in the case, NEWS9 asked Prosecutor Jane Hanlin if there was more work to be done by investigators.

“One of the most disturbing parts of her statement is how many people should have intervened and should have helped this young woman when she was a student on their campus,” Hanlin said. “And, so, there may be more work to do on this case because it’s certainly clear to us and it was clear through her statement that there were a number of points that this should have stopped.”

In her statement, the victim said while the abuses continued over a period of three years, the university,…

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The Vatican has commissioned an investigation into a recently retired auxiliary bishop, who served as the vicar general in the Diocese of Brooklyn until his retirement Monday. At least one diocesan official has resigned in protest over the handling of the complaint, according to sources in the diocese.

Bishop Raymond Chappetto, 76, whose resignation was announced by the Vatican on March 7, is accused of failing to pass on to the Brooklyn diocesan review board and diocesan officials a memo about a priest who had been accused of misconduct. The Vatican has directed the bishop of a New York diocese to investigate, sources in Brooklyn and the Vatican told The Pillar.

The investigation has raised questions among some in Brooklyn about the decision of Brooklyn’s Bishop Robert Brennan to leave Chappetto in place as vicar general for more than four months after he became aware of complaints to the Vatican about…

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In the COVID-19 era, some pastors have found creative ways to stretch a dollar. One method is to keep churches just warm enough for the congregants, without running the heat all day during the winter.

“Financially, you don’t want to cut corners on the necessities, but you find ways to pinch a penny,” said Carmelite Fr. Nicholas Blackwell, parochial vicar at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Middletown, New York.

Blackwell told NCR that his parish, which operates a main church and two mission sites in the Hudson Valley’s rural and mountain regions, is “still kind of surviving, collection to collection” two years after the novel coronavirus pandemic swept through the world.

But highlighting the uneven economic impacts that COVID-19 has had across society, Catholic parishes elsewhere are faring relatively well. Fr. Satish Joseph, pastor of three parishes in Dayton, Ohio, said his churches never had…

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In case you have not heard, David Morrier, whom I will not call “Father” ever again, has pleaded guilty to sexual battery. Shockingly, he only received probation, but at least he will have to register as a sex offender.

It happened today, a few days ahead of the upcoming trial, which had been put off with continuance after continuance for about a year, just downtown in the Jefferson County courthouse. My long-term readers will remember how closely I’ve been following this case, because Morrier was a priest at Franciscan University and someone I had considered a friend and went to for help in the worst of circumstances. He fooled me completely as he no doubt fooled many others.

I want to draw your attention to the victim’s statement, which has been posted in its entirety on Scribd. Just take time to read that. It’s horrific, but please respect her by…

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Otsego County MI – The Michigan Attorney Generals Office will not file criminal charges against a northern Michigan priest accused of sending inappropriate texts to students.

Late last year, the Diocese of Gaylord referred a complaint to the AG’s Office involving a priest sending messages through text and social media to high school students.

The Attorney General’s Office said the priest involved was Bryan Medlin.

After receiving the report, Medlin became the focus of an investigation coordinated between Michigan State Police and the Michigan Department of Attorney General.

Investigators determined Fr. Medlin had been sending several teens and young men, between 16 and 18, messages that contained sexual content and racially insensitive statements through social media and text messages, according to the report.

The messages were sent to high school students at both St. Mary’s in Lake Leelanau and St. Francis High School in Traverse City, said investigators.

“While the…

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On Dec. 9, 1968, I pulled a stool next to my father in his room at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, the same hospital where so many coronavirus patients succumbed during the Covid-19 pandemic. A nuclear veteran, age 40, with acute leukemia, he lay in a full protective bubble. I had to touch him through a rubber glove that extended from a plastic sleeve. He turned his head and fought a smile. His hollowed eyes reached mine. As a Catholic and an altar boy, I felt like the women at the foot of the cross. Two hours later my father died. I had just turned 12, and I didn’t realize that my darkest days were ahead.

His death left our family shattered. My mother fell prey to her alcoholism, and I fell prey to her escalating physical and mental abuse. Father figures in the community sought me out….

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Former Columbia City priest and chaplain for Bishop Dwenger High School David Huneck was sentenced in Whitley County Court on Thursday after pleading guilty to groping a woman at his home.

A judge accepted the plea deal with prosecutors that called for a 180-day sentence to be served as home detention. Huneck will then be placed on probation for two years and he will be required to complete 80 hours of community service.

Huneck originally faced six charges. As part of the plea, those 6 charges were dropped, the two most serious of the six being child seduction and sexual battery, both Level 6 felonies. He agreed to two new charges of battery with bodily injury.

Huneck’s plea agreement originally called for him to serve 10-90 days concurrently on both charges.

He was accused of groping a woman and exposing himself to a minor at his home on two separate…

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A former priest for the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend who was arrested on sex crime charges will spend no time behind bars.

According to Fort Wayne’s NBC, a special judge accepted a plea agreement for David Huneck on Thursday. The agreement calls for Huneck to spend 180 days on home detention and a year and a half on probation.

Huneck was also ordered to complete 80 hours of community service and will have to complete a substance abuse assessment.

Court documents released in the case accuse Huneck of inviting two young women, ages 17 and 19 at the time, to his home and giving them alcohol before assaulting them on two different occasions.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests released a statement on Thursday applauding the victims for coming forward, but it feels that charges of this magnitude deserved a much…

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Columbia City IN – A former northeastern Indiana priest will serve a 180-day sentence on home detention and spend two years on probation after he pleaded guilty Thursday to sexually abusing two teenagers.

David Huneck also will be required to complete 80 hours of community service after pleading guilty in Whitley Superior Court to two counts of battery resulting in moderate injury.

Child seduction and sexual battery charges were dismissed as part of a plea agreement.

Huneck had served as a pastor in Columbia City and as a chaplain at Bishop Dwenger High School in Fort Wayne before stepping down.

Court documents said Huneck invited two victims, then 17 and 19, to his Columbia City home and gave them alcohol before assaulting them.

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For immediate release: March 9, 2022

A Catholic priest who spent time in the Diocese of Fargo and was accused of abuse while working there is still on the job in his home diocese in Nigeria. Now, we are calling on Church officials in Fargo, Minnesota, Boston, and the Military Services to use every resource at their disposal to prevent this dangerous cleric from working around children.

Fr. Luke U. Odor not only worked in the Fargo Diocese, he was also assigned to multiple locations in Minnesota in the 1990s, including the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Diocese of Crookston. He later worked under the auspices of the Archdiocese of Boston and the Archdiocese for Military Services before his faculties were suspended in 2012 while “personal conduct matters” were investigated.

Despite that suspension and Fr. Odor being named as an abuser by Fargo, St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Crookston, the priest appears to still be working as a clergyman….

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Today, Rev. Michael Schemm was reinstated to public ministry in the Catholic Diocese of Wichita.

In October of last year, the diocese received an allegation that Father Schemm, pastor at Church of the Resurrection, sexually abused a minor in the 1990s. Rev. Schemm denied the allegation and was placed on administrative leave of absence pending investigation.

In accordance with our protocols, the diocese notified the district attorney. Ultimately, the district attorney elected not to further pursue the matter based on his conclusion that “the prosecution of any alleged crime in this situation would be time-barred.” The diocese also performed its own investigation of the allegation, which was recently completed and presented to the Charter Review Board (CRB).

The CRB reviewed this entire matter, including investigative materials and other information relating to Rev. Schemm’s 28 years of service to this diocese. The majority of CRB members, which is composed mostly of…

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A Wichita priest who was accused of sexual exploitation of a child will return to public ministry after the district attorney said he could not file charges.

Father Michael Schemm, Church of the Resurrection, was placed on administrative leave in November 2021 after the allegations surfaced. The allegations reportedly occurred between 1993 and 1996, when Schemm was assigned to St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Wichita.

The child, who would have been between 12 and 15 at the time, would be 40 this year, Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett said in late January.

Under state law, the statute of limitations expired in 2009, when the alleged victim turned 28. Bennett said his decision was a legal conclusion and and was making “no commentary or conclusions” on the allegations.

The Catholic Diocese of Wichita said in a release Tuesday that it notified the DA of Father Schemm’s reinstatement to public ministry.

“Ultimately,…

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A Wichita priest who was the subject of child abuse allegations will return to the ministry, according to the Catholic Diocese of Wichita.

In October of 2021, the diocese placed Rev. Michael Schemm on administrative leave following allegations that he had sexually abused a minor in the 1990s while he was serving at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Wichita. He denied the allegations.

The diocese then turned the case over to the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office.

In January, the district attorney’s office announced that too much time had passed to prosecute the case under state law.

On Tuesday, Bishop Carl Kemme said that the diocese performed its own investigation and presented it to the Charter Review Board (CRB) to further review.

“The CRB reviewed this entire matter, including investigative materials and other information relating to Rev. Schemm’s 28 years of service to this diocese. The majority of CRB…

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